


A Trunk with a Difference

by CatsAreCool (Rachel500)



Series: Thursday Vignettes [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-23
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2019-11-28 12:40:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18208448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rachel500/pseuds/CatsAreCool
Summary: Lily hoped for the best, but she always planned for the worst.





	1. A Trunk with a Difference

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for canon deaths and fanon trope of manipulative Dumbledore.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily had planned for the worst.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure someone has already done a 'Lily in a trunk' idea? Anyway, written to practice writing in response to a Thursday Vignette prompt on Rough Trade, October 18th, a picture of a trunk.
> 
> Apparently, I'm turning this into a collection of shorts exploring this universe so each short will be a chapter to the first fic.

The toddler on the doorstop stopped Petunia Dursley in her tracks as she reached for the milk.

She blinked but the basket with its sleeping infant didn't disappear.

She swiftly checked if anyone was looking before she carefully reached for the basket, picked it up and carried it inside. She placed it on the rug in the living room, next to the play-mat where her own son slept after his early morning feed.

She went back to retrieve the milk, hurried inside and locked the door. Out of habit she made tea; strong and sugary for shock. She returned to the living room and stared at the basket for a long moment.

She and Lily had drifted apart since Lily had been identified as a witch and taken off for schooling, and she'd barely seen her at all since her sister had wed James Potter. Some of that Petunia knew was her fault. It had been obvious in the one meeting the two couples had sat through that James Potter was utterly unlike Vernon and likely to rub him up the wrong way; the two men just had nothing in common.

Vernon was a solid and ordinary man. He'd been born to average middle-class parents, educated at a private boys' school and a proper University, and had gone to work as a manager for the same firm as his father after graduating. Petunia had met him through a friend of a friend one evening out in town in a respectable pub. They'd courted properly for a year before Vernon had proposed and they had been married a year later. Lily's James, on the other hand…

James Potter was clearly an aristocrat; polished manners, innate arrogance and unconscious elegance in quality clothes which had clearly been tailored for him. He was also movie-star handsome with his dark hair, green eyes and classic square jaw. His only flaw were the glasses he wore to see properly and even then they added a rakish air. He was truly otherworldly in a way Vernon was not and never would understand despite his acceptance that there was a magical world.

Petunia preferred Vernon's normality and steadfastness but she had always understood why James had eventually swept Lily, an otherwise sensible young woman, off her feet. They'd barely been out of school before they'd married. She sometimes wondered given the war in their world whether Harry had been an accident. Her own Dudley had been very much planned and wanted.

Petunia frowned a little at the name. Vernon had insisted on calling the poor mite after a favoured Uncle and she still thought it didn't fit her cheerful happy baby even if Vernon said he was the spitting image of the man.

In sleep, Harry James Potter definitely looked like a miniature James.

Petunia took another sip of her tea as she considered the basket and the letter she could see peeking out of the blanket.

Vernon's footsteps on the stairs had her turning to the doorway as he appeared in his pyjamas although he'd thrown his dressing gown over the blue striped cotton. Petunia was suddenly aware she was still in her nightwear under her sensible flannel housecoat.

Vernon stared at the basket and shot Petunia a questioning look. "Is that Lily's boy?" he began uncertainly.

"Yes," said Petunia, willing her voice to remain firm.

"I didn't hear them…"

"You didn't," Petunia confirmed, "I found the basket on the doorstep."

Vernon blinked at her, his ruddy cheeks paling. "I know your sister and that wizard of hers are a bit odd what with the magic thing and all, but even they wouldn't leave a baby on a doorstep." He frowned. "Do you remember the hoo-hah yesterday? I overheard someone say the Potters were gone but…" he shrugged helplessly.

Petunia nodded and finally faced up to the thoughts she had been resolutely pushing away.

James and Lily wouldn't leave Harry. Which meant something had happened to them. Something bad.

Vernon crossed the room and put his arm around her. "What are we going to do?"

Petunia sighed. "Lily sent me a trunk only last week. It's in the attic. She said if anything happened to her I should open it."

Vernon looked slightly panicked as she moved past him and into the hallway. "What do I do if Howard wakes up?!"

"It's  _Harry_ , Vernon and do what you do with Dudley," Petunia sighed exasperated, "feed him or change him." She left him wrinkling his nose at the thought of nappy changes and headed upstairs.

She hated the ladder to the attic and went carefully up. They'd put flooring down so they could walk easily and it only took a moment to locate the old-fashioned wooden trunk. Petunia knelt down in front of it and carefully placed her hand on the lock.

It clicked open.

A golden glow seeped from the crack and Petunia caught her breath as she pushed the lid upward. The light streamed out and suddenly the shape of Lily was there in front of her…a golden cloud of magic.

"Help me, Obi-Wan, for you are my only hope!" Lily's avatar said loudly.

Petunia rolled her eyes. "Not funny."

"Oh come on, it's a little funny! And it  _was_  my inspiration for making this imprint!" The avatar looked around the attic and sighed. "Well, if I'm awake that means I must be dead." She grimaced at Petunia's soft sob at the blunt truth. "Sorry, Petunia."

Petunia allowed herself another moment of grief before she took a deep breath. "We found Harry on the doorstop."

Unsurprisingly, the golden shape immediately formed a stream of light. Petunia followed it down to the living room, very aware that the trunk followed on its own.

Vernon's shriek of surprise had her hurrying. She wasn't surprised to find him, clutching Dudley to his chest and keeping a chair between him and the golden form of her sister.

"Is that…?" he asked.

"Some form of Lily," Petunia said.

"I'm kind of a magical portrait," the avatar said, "but James and I worked out how to make me this instead of a painting. His trunk is in the family vault. I was given to Petunia for safekeeping. You can still call me Lily." She reached out a glowing hand to her son. "He's injured. There's a scar on his forehead."

"What?!" Petunia immediately moved to take a closer look, scolding herself inwardly for not giving her nephew a thorough examination as soon as she'd brought him inside. She brushed the dark tuft of hair back and frowned at the livid red lightning bolt scar. "Vernon, get a cold compress!"

Vernon placed Dudley back down, hurried out and came back almost immediately with a cold cloth dripping with water.

Petunia sighed. Men. They seemed completely incapable of wringing a cloth out properly. She squeezed the excess water into her abandoned teacup and laid the cloth on Harry's head. He hardly stirred.

Something dropped through the letter-box; the small thump echoing through the house and startling them all.

"Probably the paper," muttered Vernon as he went to investigate.

"Something's wrong here," Lily's avatar held her hand out over Harry's forehead, "there's dark magic attached to him."

Petunia's breath caught painfully in her chest; a shiver zipped down her spine. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not sure," Lily said, "but whatever it is it's not natural. It's subdued by the protection I gave him but who knows what affect it would have on him or the people around him long term? He needs a hospital and a Healer!"

"Isn't this your husband's snobby mate?" Vernon suddenly brandished the front page of the paper and thrust it in front of the golden figure.

Petunia craned her head to look and blinked. She barely recognised the bloody, sooty and dusty man.

"That's Sirius!" Lily almost reached for the paper before she seemed to realise she wouldn't be corporeal enough to hold it. "What does it say?"

"It says Black was arrested yesterday for that terrorist bomb in London," Vernon said, "it killed thirteen people!"

"That makes no sense," Lily paced away from Vernon and around the room, "none of this makes any sense!"

"Maybe the letter will explain," Vernon pointed at the letter in the basket.

Petunia reached for it.

"Wait!" The avatar stalked back over and raised her hand again. "There's a small magical compulsion spell on it."

"Of course there is," Petunia said sharply. She'd never trusted the magical world. She went into the kitchen to retrieve some tongs and set about opening the letter without touching it. It took a few moments but before long they were all crouched around the coffee table staring at the words.

"He tells you I'm dead in a letter!"

The imprint certainly had her sister's fury, Petunia noted. "I'm not sure realising it from knowing some imprint of you was awake was any better," she pointed out. "Apparently, by taking Harry inside our home, our protection and his is guaranteed from the magical world." She tapped the tongs on the sentence. "Honestly, did he think I was going to read the letter on the doorstep with a baby out in the cold?!"

"He's threatening us!" said Vernon, shoving a meaty finger at a passage. "If we don't take the boy in then we'll likely be targets of this bad wizard's followers. He's trying to scare us into taking him!"

"This is insane," Petunia said, "why would anyone see to the custody of a baby like this! They don't know anything about us!"

Lily's avatar nodded. "Sirius is Harry's guardian. He's meant to take him but there are provisions because we knew he might have gotten killed right alongside us. Either way, you are not part of the chain of custody, Petunia."

Petunia bristled at that. Wasn't she and Vernon good enough?

"It's not that I didn't trust you to raise my child, Petunia, but you're not magical," Lily explained, "and Harry is very magical. You and Vernon just aren't equipped to deal with floating toys and accidental magic – which there may be a lot of since he'd just gone through a massive trauma of some kind. It'll only scare you and you're scared enough of magic as it is."

Petunia nodded slowly seeing the reason. She and Vernon were not equipped to deal with a magical baby nor did they really want their lives upended by having to take Lily's child in. Of course, they'd do their duty if they had to…

"We need to get someone from the Ministry here," Lily said, "we need to tell them about Harry's injury and make sure he gets help, and find out what's going on with Sirius because he would never blow up a street! We can owl someone I trust who will help us…"

"Not this Dumbledore chap?" asked Vernon.

Lily's golden imprint shook her head. "No," she said tersely, "I'm definitely not going to trust that senile old man who left my son on a doorstep in November and tried to blackmail you into taking him."

Petunia nodded decisively. "Right then; Vernon, you'd best get to work, you're already running late. Lily, you and I will get this sorted out."

"Parchment's in my trunk," Lily said visibly relieved.

Petunia sneaked a peek at the slumbering form of her nephew. She would have taken him, under protest and grudgingly given that awful letter, but she would have done it. But, Petunia mused as she set out the parchment and picked up a pen, thank God for Lily's trunk.

The End.


	2. Howl at the Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remus can't figure out why Sirius would betray them; Moony has a different take on the whole situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written in response to a Thursday Vignette over on Rough Trade to practice my writing. Prompt is December 13th and a picture of a wolf and a moon.
> 
> I'm kind of open to exploring this universe as a set of interconnected shorts...

The newspaper headline had Moony snarling in Remus's head.

"SIRIUS BLACK KILLS POTTERS! WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE!"

He tossed the paper into the wastebasket and absently set it on fire. A second absent thought had a stream of water gushing from his wand to put the fire out.

He sank into his chair and rubbed his pounding head. Moony was close. It was almost twilight. The moon would be out within hours and Remus would be lost to the madness of his condition. He wouldn't remember being in Berlin on a mission for Dumbledore. He wouldn't remember losing James and Lily; wouldn't remember that baby Harry was sequestered in the muggle world for safety.

Moony's growl echoed through his head.

Remus was tempted to growl himself. What had Dumbledore been thinking? Harry was magical – very magical. Handing him over to Lily's muggle sister…

Lily had often complained about the divide between her and her sister. Petunia was not magical at all and she had married a very ordinary and muggle man. Lily had loved her sister, there was no doubt of that in Remus's mind, but she had never intended for Harry to be raised by her. That honour had gone to Sirius, Harry's godfather.

Harry's betrayer.

Moony growled again; a warning this time at the thought but…bugger that!

Sirius had been the Secret Keeper! Sirius had betrayed the Potters to You-Know-Who! Just as once Sirius had betrayed Remus's confidence and…

Moony snarled inside his head.

Remus stood up. He paced up and down the small room he had rented in Berlin. He wouldn't be able to stay inside during the change, Remus mused. Moony was too antsy and so was Remus. He went to drawer and pulled out a sturdy rope collar on which hung a small box. He looped it over his head with a grimace. The box contained a magical tent, some cash, a basic first aid kit, a set of clothes and his spare apartment key.

He left everything else and left the apartment.

There were plenty of apparation points in the magical centre of Berlin including one into the tourist areas of the Bavarian countryside. Remus ignored the small group of milling tourists and apparated further into the forest; his destination was a clearing he had found months before. It was miles from anywhere. It had been a good three days hike from the apparation point and Remus had only found traces of other wildlife; nothing magical.

He set up the tent and sat in the centre of the clearing, waiting. He let his grief fill him up; tears falling silently down his scarred cheeks.

Remus couldn't believe James was gone. James with his quiet but charismatic leadership; his funny wit; his caring nature. James with all his nobility and honour; his courage and his grace. Remus had lost a true brother in magic.

He mourned him; grieved for him. He accepted his own anger at not being in England; not being there to help protect his brother.

And Lily.

Ah, Lily.

Once their red-haired nemesis at Hogwarts, after she and James had started to court each other…she had become the fifth Marauder. She was so smart; brilliant. Her tongue was sharp and her wand was quick. But she was loving and joyous. She had accepted Remus's furry problem without fear or pity. She had placed her cub in his arms.

He would miss her warmth in his life; the world already felt colder without her.

Harry would never know her maternal embrace again and that seemed like the worst of the tragedy.

Remus shivered as he thought of Harry. His heart ached for the little boy. He loved the bright bubbly bundle of mischief. There was nothing better than walking into the Potters' cottage and being greeted by cries for Uncle Mooey.

Moony howled inside his head; mournful and devastated.

He would never have that perfect moment again.

Anger stirred within Remus.

Why?

Why had Sirius done it? What had happened to twist him? What could You-Know-Who possibly have offered to turn Sirius against James? Sirius loved James. The two had a connection not even the Marauders collectively enjoyed. It seemed completely wrong for Sirius to betray James, let alone Harry who he adored.

The moon shone down into the clearing.

Moony snarled inside Remus's head.

Pain flooded him as the change erupted. Skin bulged and tore as his bones and flesh reshaped themselves; as his mind was one moment his own and the next, Moony's.

Between one blink and another Remus found himself in a magical headspace. The background was still the clearing but the trees and grass were a weird blue tone. In front of him on the other side of the clearing was a large timber wolf.

Remus swallowed.

As a child he'd often spend his moons with Moony in their magical headspace, but as he'd grown older he'd eschewed the pull of his mind and retreated instead into darkness when Moony was in control.

Moony stared back at him with intent amber eyes. _"You are being stupid."_

The words whispered across the mental space although Moony didn't speak.

Remus bristled. "Excuse me?"

" _You blame Padfoot for the deaths of our packmates,"_ Moony continued, _"you are wrong."_

"He betrayed them!" Remus spluttered angrily.

" _He would never!"_ Moony snarled back.

"He already did!" Remus shouted. "He betrayed us to Snape!"

Moony growled. _"Padfoot was taunted into giving away the secret of the tree and while that was foolish it was not malicious. He did not believe Snape stupid enough to face down a werewolf nor dangerous enough to dream up a scheme to have Sirius expelled at best and us all dead at worst."_

"What?" Remus stuttered.

Moony looked at him unimpressed. _"The only reason Snape followed Sirius's instruction was to entrap us into attacking him. Perhaps he mistakenly believed the danger amounted to nothing more than you wearing a werewolf form. Maybe he even dreamed he would kill you in presumed self-defence."_

"And if he had, Sirius would have been blamed just as I blamed him anyway," Remus surmised out loud.

Sirius could have been arrested for knowingly endangering Snape's life; he might have been tried for attempted murder. Moony was right; Snape had probably intended a different outcome than coming face to face with the dangerous reality of a werewolf.

"Even if that wasn't all on Sirius," Remus said, and he shoved away the curl of guilt at how he had always blamed Sirius and only Sirius for the incident, "this is: he was the Secret Keeper."

" _Was he?"_ Moony questioned. _"What scent was on the slip of parchment you received from him?"_

Remus's nose wrinkled as he flashed back to Sirius handing him the parchment during a brief visit back to England only a few short days before. The parchment had had traces of Sirius's scent; the cologne he always wore and wet dog. But there had been something else, something which was in the paper itself…rat. There had been a smell of a rat.

Wormtail.

Remus thought back to the recent deaths; the way the Death Eaters had known where to find the McKinnons and the Prewett twins. There had been suspicion the Order had a spy. But Peter hadn't been present when the McKinnons had shared their hiding place; when the twins had been given a secret mission by Dumbledore. Remus had. Sirius had. James had been present. But not Peter.

" _Wasn't he?"_ whispered Moony.

Remus thought back hard. He remembered the Order headquarters in the old Figg farm. They had all been gathered in the barn; smells of hay and wood and manure; sounds of discussion and the birds outside and the scuttling tiny feet of mice and…and rats.

Bugger.

The spy was Peter.

But then, even if Peter had seen the paper Sirius had given Remus, he wouldn't have been able to inform You-Know-Who. The Fidelius restricted the ability to tell the secret to the Secret Keeper and…

Wormtail was the Secret Keeper.

That's why his scent was on the paper. He had written it. Remus could identify clearly now how much the block writing looked like Peter's and less like Sirius's.

A switch.

James and Sirius must have conspired to switch Sirius for Peter. Sirius had made himself a target so Peter would be safe, because everyone thought Sirius was the Secret Keeper.

It had been Peter who had betrayed the Potters. Peter who had led You-Know-Who to them.

Remus growled.

Moony twitched an ear in satisfaction.

"Why have you never told me before?" demanded Remus.

" _You have never allowed your emotional control to slip enough for me to bring you here as I did when you were a child,"_ Moony replied. _"Not until tonight when your grief overtook you."_

Remus accepted that. He hated losing control. But maybe he'd been stupid to ignore the pull to their magical space where he could converse with Moony.

At least he knew now it was Peter.

"Why?" asked Remus. "Why would he betray us?!"

" _Safety and survival,"_ Moony said, _"a rat leaves what they believe to be a sinking ship. He cannot help his nature."_

"Nobody knows do they," Remus said, "they all think Sirius did it! Damn it! We need to transform back!"

" _The moon is high still,"_ Moony said. But there was apology in the tone.

"After then," Remus stated with determination. They would return and they would force Dumbledore and the Ministry to listen. They would find Sirius and bring their brother home safely.

Merlin.

Sirius had to be heartbroken and hurting. Sirius really had loved James beyond all reason. Sometimes Remus had wondered if James hadn't been stuck on Lily if…but then Sirius had loved Lily too. He'd been absolutely gone on Harry; a devoted godfather.

Remus would be there for him.

" _Run with me,"_ whispered Moony.

Remus let himself shift; let himself be a passenger to Moony's control.

He felt the wind rush through their fur, the ground beneath their feet as they ran and ran. Running out their grief and anger; their pain and hurt for the loss of their packmates. And when they stopped, they lifted their head and howled to the moon.

o-O-o

Remus hurried into the apartment and set the rope and box to one side. He'd ended up staying in the tent a day recovering from the violence of his transformation but he felt content inside. Moony and he were both agreed; they were dumping the useless mission Dumbledore had sent them on – and was it even still a mission given the defeat of You-Know-Who? – and going back to England to save Sirius.

An owl hooted at him from the window and waved the newspaper at him.

Remus hurried over and took it from the owl, rewarding the bird with a treat. It took off immediately and Remus unfurled the paper hoping for news of Harry or Sirius…

"SIRIUS BLACK EXONERATED! MAGICAL TRUNK LEFT BY POTTERS REVEAL THEIR TRUE TRAITOR!"

"SIRIUS BLACK APPOINTED GUARDIAN OF THE BOY-WHO-LIVED!"

"PETTIGREW WANTED! DEAD OR ALIVE!"

Remus blinked.

He read the news headlines again.

"What?"

And in his head, Moony gave a long-suffering sigh.

The End.


End file.
